After an accident or loss, property owners typically need to document the extent of the damage. To do this, appraisers investigate the damage to determine the extent and/or loss. Determining and documenting the extent of damage can be risky for the appraiser. For example, in a situation where a structure experiences roof damage, appraisers typically climb onto the roof to evaluate the damage. When climbing onto the roof and maneuvering around the roof for the inspection, an appraiser runs the risk of injury, especially in difficult weather conditions, where the roof may be slippery because of severe winds, rain, snow and/or ice.
Even if the appraiser is not injured, the appraisal process is time-consuming and inefficient. Once on the roof, appraisers may take a digital picture of the damaged area. Afterwards the picture is typically analyzed later by an appraiser to estimate the extent of damage to the structure. Two-dimensional digital pictures or videos of a roof or structure often provide inadequate detail for a thorough inspection of the structure. Issues like poor image quality resulting from camera movement, bad lighting or out-of-focus images can make it difficult to estimate the condition of the property based on an image.